Eng 57 syllabus

English 150:

Dave Holper: Office #: 707-476-4370

Email: david-holper@redwoods.edu

Web: http://www.redwoods.edu/departments/english/instructors/Holper/English150/english_150.htm

Office Hours (Life Sciences 100):

Writing Center Hours:

College of the Redwoods

SYLLABUS

"Outside of a dog a book is a man's best friend. Inside, it's too dark to read." Groucho Marx

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COURSE DESCRIPTION: A study in the development of college-level reading, writing, and critical thinking skills, emphasizing basic argumentation. Students analyze ideas and structure in assigned readings and compose essays supporting arguable thesis statements. __________________________________________________________________________________

COREQUISITE: English 150L requires students to spend approximately ninety minutes a week in the Writing Center, where they receive the one-to-one feedback essential to succeeding in a composition course which emphasizes the writing process and multiple revisions. In addition, the students are tutored in grammar, punctuation, and sentence skills, freeing up class time to focus on critical reading and thinking. Note: In the first week of the semester, you’ll schedule your hours for the Writing Center. The lab begins in the second week of the semester. __________________________________________________________________________________

COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES:

• In texts you have read, assess the strengths and weaknesses of an argument and its supporting reasons and evidence, taking into account audience, credibility, and accuracy.

• Recognize the rudiments and variations of argument structure in a text you have read, distinguishing between major ideas and supporting evidence.

• Recognize writing as a process that involves inventing, drafting, revising, and editing.

• Using writing as a tool for discovery, demonstrate effective strategies for generating ideas and exploring issues rationally and with communal consciousness.

• Demonstrate understanding of the choices involved in constructing a persuasive essay by planning an appropriate essay structure.

• Compose and assess an arguable thesis relevant to a general college audience.

• Compose well-developed paragraphs that are focused, coherent, and unified.

• Use concrete details and specific examples to develop and explain general ideas.

• Recognize the importance of revision in the writing process and demonstrate effective revision strategies

• Practice persuasive and analytical writing styles that facilitate clear communication of complex ideas.

• Apply basic grammar and punctuation rules, particularly those that address sentence boundaries.

• Distinguish between multiple points of view through discussion and writing to develop opinions based on reasoned analysis.

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REQUIRED TEXTS/, MATERIALS:

1) Holper's English 150 course packet in a three-ring binder with binder paper (for notes)

2) Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

3) Three bluebooks

4) Pen, pencil, and hi-liter.

5) Means of back-up: magic stick, CD, etc.

Triad:

Name: _____________________________ Contact info: _______________________________

Welcome to English 150! I'm excited to be your teacher, and I hope that each of us will enjoy and learn a great deal during this semester. This will be an intensive course because I will ask a lot of each one of you, but in return, I hope you will find this to be one of your most memorable writing classes. The primary goals of this course are to help you in developing writing, reading, and critical thinking skills, as well as prepare you for English 1A, college writing. In order to do this, we will concentrate on reviewing grammar, doing practice exercises in our text, writing essays, and learning how to develop an argument. Beyond that--and perhaps more importantly--I want you to learn to write more powerfully, passionately, and naturally.

Your Instructor: Dave has done a little of everything, including taxi driver, fire fighter, cook, soldier, house painter, and teacher. He earned his BA in English at Humboldt State University way back in 1983, where he also studied journalism. After his graduation, he served for four years in the Army Military Intelligence Corps and then went on to take a Masters of Fine Arts in English at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he wrote a book of short stories. He has since taught at Christian Brothers High School, Jesuit High School, Yuba College, Solano College, and Sacramento City College. Currently he lives in Eureka with his wife and three children.

My Office: My office is in Life Sciences, #100. This building is right next to Math/Science. Please knock before entering. (Don't arm wrestle with a rattlesnake!)

My Mailbox: You'll find my mailbox in the 200 hallway of the Forum Building. The mailboxes are roughly halfway down the hall.

Course Calendar: You’ll find this posted weekly (on Friday afternoons) on the class website. You should print the calendar page(s) each week, three hole punch it/them, and have it at the front of your binder with your class booklet. By keeping organized in this way, you’ll have a much better idea what’s happening at each class.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Class Participation: This class involves extensive reading, discussion, and writing. If you sit back and leave others to talk, you'll get a lot less out of the course. Therefore, in order to encourage you to participate in every class, there is a 2.5 percent class participation score out of your total grade, which equates to about 20 points—enough to make a difference at the end of the semester.

Journals: After your readings, I will ask you to write response journals to these readings. You'll find the journal topics posted on the website. Some of these journals will be written in class (in a timed format), and some will be written for homework.

Required Essay Writing: three out-of-class, formal essays of 750-1000 words. Each essay must include a prewrite and at least two drafts. You must keep a copy of the paper for yourself. Please save all work that goes into papers!

Tutoring: On all three of the out-of-class essays you do, you must have an instructor/tutor conference (in the Writing Center or with me in my office). Please note: if you use the Light Center or the LAC tutoring staff, this is also okay, as long as the tutoring form is filled out and signed. After our draft workshop, you must then revise the essay, and bring the assignment, the first draft, the revised draft, and the tutor form to the Writing Center for your conference. You'll need to make sure the tutor form is completed before going, as I'll ask you to write questions for the tutor. There are tutor conference forms in your class packet, and you will need to have yours filled out by the tutor and then turn it in to me with the essay packet.

Late Work/Freebies: Final drafts are due at the beginning of class on the due date on your syllabus. You are allowed one late final draft for this course (there is a late paper coupon in the packet), but this may only be used on the first two papers. The freebie is good to turn in a paper one week late; that's seven days. As for excuses beyond the freebie date, unless it's an emergency, remember that I've heard better than you can imagine: quarantined for chicken pox, assault with a deadly weapon, AIDS test, etc. I do not accept late papers: these will be given an F.

Draft Workshops: These are required. In order to make sure you understand how important these are, first drafts are worth 25 percent of the value of each paper. Thus, you cannot go higher than a “C” on a final draft of a paper if you have missed the Draft Workshop or come with no work at all. Absences are not acceptable on Draft Workshop days unless it is an emergency and you have a written note from a doctor. It is not acceptable to bring handwritten drafts to workshops, and these will not be given credit. No exceptions lounge lizards!

Papers: All papers (and all drafts) will be typed. Typing directions for MLA (Modern Language Association) format are included just behind the paper #1 assignment in the class booklet.

Revisions: You are entitled to revise both of the first two papers this semester. In order to do a revision, however, you must attend a tutor conference and turn in all your original work, your tutor slip, and your revision. You have a week to complete a revision.

Plagiarism: If you blatantly plagiarize a paper, and I catch you, you automatically will fail the course. Inadvertent plagiarism will result in lower grades, but you will not fail the course, although you probably will not do as well on the paper.

Turnitin.com: On all the out-of-class papers that we do, you'll be responsible to turn in your paper to the turnitin.com website, which helps all of us in insuring that all work done at the 1A level is original. This must be done before the paper is turned in to me; otherwise, you will receive zero points for the paper (until you do turn it in to turnitin.com). Then you’ll need to return the graded paper to me (with a note that it’s now turned in to turnitin.com). For your tardiness, you will five percent off the final grade of the paper. Directions for how to use turnitin.com can be found on the class website, along with a link that will take you to turnitin.com. The class ID# and password will be posted on our website for the first paper. (Once you’ve inputted the class ID# and password, you don’t need to do it again.)

Competency Exam: Two weeks before finals you'll receive two written prompts to read and think about for one week. Then in the week before finals, you'll write an argument response to one of these topics during the 1 1/2 hour class session. This essay will be worth 20 percent of your overall grade. We'll do several practice competency exams in advance of the real one, so you have a good idea both how to write this essay, as well as areas you need to improve upon. All competency exams (practice and real) will be written in blue books.

Attendance/Promptness: If you miss a class, please remember, it is your responsibility to find out from another student what you missed by calling someone on the phone list. If you come 15 minutes late or unprepared that will count as ½ an absence. Also, if you leave more than 15 minutes early, it will also count as an absence. Don't plan appointments during class time, unless it is an emergency. Also, if you miss more than six classes, you will fail the course.

Pet Peeves:

1) Don't get up and go to the bathroom in the middle of the class, unless it is absolutely necessary.

2) Don't eat in class unless you're a diabetic, and you've indicated that to me.

3) Don't crinkle up paper when the writing isn't going well.

4) Don't come strolling in late or leave early; don't schedule appointments during class sessions.

5) Don't tell me you don't know what's going on in class when the syllabus calendar is already posted with the details of what we've done or what we're going to do.

6) Don't ask me for information that is available by reading the syllabus.

Extra Credit: During the course of the semester, I'll announce several extra credit events. For extra credit, you may attend one of these events and write up a one-page review of what you thought of this event (be specific, so take notes). The review is due at our next class session. It should be one page, typed, double spaced. There are twenty possible points for this assignment. You may only do the extra credit assignment once, although I encourage you to attend the events. The format is to type your name at the top of the paper (left hand side), the title "Extra Credit Journal," and then type up a page about the event: do not use MLA format.

Your Portfolio: Please save all your work this semester so that you can verify your improvement and so that you're covered in case I accidentally do not record the grade.

Grading/Points:

Rough total (please note that this varies from semester to semester):

1) Three papers (50, 100, 200) 350 pts.

2) Journals 200 pts.

3) Unit Tests 132 pts.

4) Competency Exam 20% of total grade

5) Class Participation 2.5% of total grade

Note: Dave does not grade on a curve; he uses straight point tallies with 90 percent and above as a A, 80 to 89 percent as a B; 70-79 percent as a C; 60-69.5 percent as a D; work below this is usually so late or so poorly composed that is an obviously an F.

Note: This syllabus may be modified during the course of the semester, as needed. If there are corrections or additions, these will be posted on the syllabus calendar, which can be found on the course website.